Needlestick and sharps injuries among nurses in a tropical Australian hospital.
Int J Nurs Pract. 2006 Apr;12(2):71-7.
Needlestick and sharps injuries among nurses in a tropical Australian hospital.
‘Smith DR, Smyth W, Leggat PA, Wang RS.
Department of Hazard Assessment, National Institute of Industrial Health, Kawasaki, Japan. smith@niih.go.jp’
Although needlestick and sharps injuries (NSI) represent a major hazard in nursing practice, most studies rely on officially reported data and none have yet been undertaken in tropical environments. Therefore, we conducted a cross-sectional NSI survey targeting all nurses within a tropical Australian hospital, regardless of whether they had experienced an NSI or not. Our overall response rate was 76.7%. A total of 39 nurses reported 43 NSI events in the previous 12 months. The most common causative device was a normal syringe needle, followed by insulin syringe needles, i.v. needles or kits and blood collection needles. Half of the nurses’ NSI events occurred beside the patient’s bed: drawing up medication was the most common reason. Nurses working in the maternity/neonatal wards were only 0.3 times as likely to have experienced an NSI as their counterparts in the medical or surgical wards. Overall, our study has shown that NSI events represent an important workplace issue for tropical Australian nurses. Their actual rate might also be higher than official reports suggest.
MeSH Terms: Accidents, Occupational/prevention & control – Accidents, Occupational/statistics & numerical data* – Adult – Age Distribution – Attitude of Health Personnel – Causality – Cross-Sectional Studies – Epidemiologic Studies – Female – Health Knowl
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